To Ethnica!

To our Super Star in India, Ethnica we miss you! This is our gift to you.

Scroll below to turn off playlist and then click on arrow to start the video.

THE PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!

How fun does that look? To all my Super parents... THANK YOU so much for making it all happen. Everything turned out wonderful and we had a great time being together and eating cookies and candy and drinking hot chocolate. As I left I heard many a child exclaim, "This is the best day of my life!"

Getting the Christmas Spirit

As you can see, we have been very busy. But you will have to wait until December 25th to find out what we were up to!

YMCA Tree

Here we are delivering the gifts to the YMCA. The kids were so excited to be a part of this program. They felt very special being able to help another child. Thanks for all your support for this important charity event. On the walk over to the Y we sang Christmas carols. What we didn't count on was the cold blast of air that met us on the way!! Everyone at the Y was very appreciative and excited to see us.

Our Wish for the World

We talk a lot this holiday season about the spirit of giving. Today we went global and thought about what we would wish for the world during this special time of the year. Come by and read the cards and find your glittering Super Star on the tree!

In the Spirit of Giving

Mark Twain is in the Holiday spirit! Here are two ways to brighten someone's holiday season.

• The student council is working with Compassionate Care Hospice of Houston to make gift baskets for sick children. All items must be new. The dollar store is a great place to look for things to donate. We will be collecting items for kids of all ages, and then sorting those items to make our gift baskets. Please bring your contribution to the classroom.

• In the spirit of giving, each classroom at Mark Twain has adopted a child from the YMCA “wish tree” to help needy children that live at the Royale and Oaks Apartments on Bissonnet have a happier holiday. Our room moms have already purchased the items. If you would like to make a cash donation to help with the cost of these items - it would be greatly appreciated.

Nutcracker

Look at those Super Stars!! Dressed up to go the Nutcracker Ballet

Field Trip

Tuesday December 9th, we will be heading downtown to the see the Nutcracker Ballet. Everyone needs to bring a snack (to eat before we leave) and a sack lunch. We will leave school around 10:00AM and will not return until 1:30PM. The cafeteria will be closed when we return. Students may wear uniforms or dress up for the occasion.

Student Led Conferences

What a great experience! I loved watching my students as they explained with great excitement the work they have accomplished in third grade. They are so proud and they should be!! The Super Stars were shining bright this afternoon!
p.s. Don't forget to click on the mosaic to enlarge the pictures.

Mark Twain

We had a special visit by Mark Twain himself!

Portfolios

We are busy getting our portfolios ready for the student led conferences on Wednesday. This is an opportunity for your child to share what they are learning with you. Some questions for you to ask: What did you learn from this work? How would you change this work? What makes you proud of your work? Tell me what things you like doing in class? What are the things on which you would like to improve? Remember the most important role for the parent during student led conferences is to listen and give encouragement. Have you signed up for a time? The sign up sheet is on the bulletin board next to the classroom.

Creating Products

As part of our planner, Attention Shoppers, we have been exploring ideas such as supply and demand and producers and consumers. We create our own product with an assembly line. Next, we developed advertising to sell the product. Read closely because they promise you can eat cookies and drink lemonade and stay healthy!

Mosaic

Click on the mosaic to enlarge!

Morning Meeting

Every morning, The Super Stars find a friendly way of greeting each other. The are several components to the Morning Meeting; greeting, activity, sharing, and news. The greetings not only teach us how to speak respectfully to each other by looking in someones eyes and addressing them by name, but it also makes everyone feel a part of the learning community. The activities are a great way to learn about each other and to also have fun. In the above pictures we are using the Baseball Greeting.

Geoboards!

Here we are exploring perimeter with our geoboards. We had to figure out the length of the sides of an rectangle when given the perimeter. One thing we discovered is that our geoboards were not big enough! Solution: put two boards together to solve the problem.

Assembly Line

Attention Shoppers! Our current story, The Goat in the Rug, led to a discussion of goods and services and how to produce them. The main character wove a rug by herself which took a long time. We decided to see how long it would take us! After twenty minutes, our individual attempts yielded two rugs. Next, we explored the idea of an assembly line. We worked so hard that some workers got a blister from cutting! Not only did we have fun working together - we learned all about assembly lines that produce goods. In the end, we decided our rug business would not have made it because we spent too much on supplies and did not produce enough goods.

EEKK

We have a saying in our classroom "EEKK!" That means you sit with a partner elbow to elbow, knee to knee to read together. After reading a selection, you have a discussion about the story. I have been hearing a lot of, "Well, how do you know?"

Finding the Perimeter

Today we explored measuring to find the perimeter of a shape. First we had to make the shapes! In this lesson, we discussed the following vocabulary words: polygon, angle, perimeter, parallel, parallelograms and quadrangles that are not parallelograms. You can see from the pictures that The Super Stars were working very hard. They did a great job exploring and thinking mathamatically.

Homework Newsletter

Dear Parents,
Please help your Super Star by reminding them to utilize their agenda. They are required to write the homework in the agenda everyday. The short story should be read out loud so the students may practice fluency and expression. The questions should be answered in complete sentences. If homework is not completed, students will receive an incomplete for the day.
Here are some additional tips regarding homework in third grade.
1. Provide a home study area with proper light and few distractions. Turn off the television and music. Ensure a dictionary, paper, pens, etc., are available. Ask your child if additional materials will be needed for some projects, like poster board or stencils, and get them in advance.
2. Help your children manage their time. Don't let them leave homework until just before bedtime when they are tired and cranky. Instead, help them plan a time to complete homework, while also considering other commitments they have during the week, such as music lessons or sports practice.
3. When your child does homework, do your own "homework." Show your child the skills they are learning are related to things you do as an adult. If your child is reading, read the newspaper. If your child is doing math, balance your checkbook.
4. Help your children determine “hard” and “easy” homework. Encourage them to do the hard work first. Easy homework seems to go faster when they begin to get tired.
5. When your child asks for help, provide guidance, not answers. Encourage your student to divide homework assignments into "What I can do myself" and "What I need help with." Make sure you only help with the work your child can’t accomplish independently, such as practicing spelling tests.
6. Watch for signs of frustration. Encourage your children to take short breaks during longer assignments, especially if they are having trouble concentrating.
7. Reward progress. After your child has worked hard to complete an especially difficult assignment, celebrate that success by doing something special, like going for a bike ride together or sharing an ice cream sundae.
8. Look over their homework upon completion. However, don’t correct it unless the teacher encourages you to do so. That’s because a teacher can customize additional instruction for your child if he or she sees the pattern of errors. My request is to draw a line through the error and do it again. If more room is needed use an additional sheet of paper.
9. Keep in touch with the teacher. Then you’ll be fully aware of the quantity and quality of homework your child turns in.
10. Remind your children that homework is a good thing. It builds responsibility and independence in your child and is a great way for kids to develop lifelong learning skills.

Important Information

November 10th - Picture Make-up Day Picture make-ups are for students who have a packet they did not like and will turn it in at the time they are called or for any student who has an envelope with money.

November 19th - Student Led Conferences This tentative date has been changed to December 3rd.

December 1st and 2nd Book Fair At the Barnes and Nobles on W. Holcombe.

The Super Stars are busy creating images based on a poem I read aloud. We are practicing our visualization techniques to help us become better readers and writers. Come by the room to see the final projects.

Election Day

As you know, Election Day is fast approaching. To help the students understand the process we initiated an election scenario for our class representative. Students were given the option of running and prepared their campaign this weekend. Everyone decided that there should be a vice-rep in case the class representative could not perform their duties. Today, several students arrived with campaign buttons, posters and speeches. Here are a few excerpts:

• If elected president, I promise to work with our hardworking teachers to encourage contests between classes on the same grade both in sports and academically.
• Hello Ms. Musters and my fellow classmates, I want to be our class representative because I would like to help our school.
• I have a dream that this community could accomplish any task by using our powers. If you elect me I will make sure eveyrone has fun learning and take care of each other.

Here is an excerpt from a speech written in support of their running mate:

• Even though she is new to this school she is smart she knows her school, and she is filled from head to toe with the best wisdom I could ever imagine.

If you want success vote for the best! Thank you for your support!

Friday October 31

The Super Stars had a very busy day! We spent the morning using math and science to explore pumpkins. Did you know that a pumpkin is 90 percent water? With the help of our amazing parent volunteers, we explored every aspect of a pumpkin. We used observation and inquiry to discover the connections between what we see on the outside to what we found on the inside. Click on the link to view a slideshow of the event: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/slideshow.php?id=57069

Pumpkin Patch

If you come by our room you will see a unique looking pumpkin patch. We used measuring tools to cut 6inch long and 1inch wide strips of paper. The challenge was - can you create a pumpkin with just 6 of the strips. The Super Stars rose to the challenge! Each and every pumpkin is different.
Today in the Tuesday Folders you will find information regarding our next field trip. Please return slips and payment as soon as possible. To the parents who have volunteered for this field trip - I have been told it is easier for you to ride the bus with your student. Apparently the parking is difficult for this event.
Friday- PUMPKIN MATH! It is a free dress day, but no costumes allowed. BOO

PYP Planner

PYP Planner: Attention Shoppers
Central Idea: Economic systems vary from simple exchange to complex interactions.
Inquiry into: Barter to business, supply and demand/producers and consumers, development of a business.
Math: Review fact families and the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction, use diagrams to help solve number stories, algorithms for adding and subtracting.
Grammar: Nouns - common and proper

Art A La Carte

Friday was a very exciting day! We had our first Art A La Carte lesson with Mrs. Dunn and Mrs. Dobson. After examining and discussing works of art, the students created their own using tinfoil, cotton balls and a blue and red crayon. The results were awesome! The art gallery is now open in the classroom. Come by and see. Friday was also the day we said good-bye to Ethnica. She is moving back to India. Ethnica made the day memorable by writing a note to each and every student and providing a delicious treat. We will miss you Ethnica, but hope you stay in touch with the blog. You will always be one of The Super Stars!!!

Literacy Development Center

Make Four Million Dollars by Next Thursday! That is the title of our current book that we are reading with Mrs. Gee. Remember to read only the assigned chapters so that your child will be well prepared to answer the questions. I loved it when one of my students exclaimed, "this goes great with our new planner." The new planner is titled "Attention Shoppers" and it will be exploring money, budgeting and bartering. I know everyone is excited about creating their budgets. I have also heard that many students are creating jobs for themselves in order to earn income. Way to go, Super Stars!

Water Planner

Don't forget to stop by the third grade hallway to take a look at some the work we completed during our water planner.

Rainy Day Recess

It has been a very WET week... a great end to our water planner. We had plenty of opportunities to discuss the effects of water on the environment. All we had to do was look out the window and watch the land around our playgrounds change drastically. In addition, we had to find ways to entertain ourselves for recess. The students had a great time working and creating with blocks, legos and designs.

Hydrologic Cycle

This week we worked on diagramming the Hydrologic Cycle. We then used the diagrams as a teaching tool when we went to visit kindergarten. The students loved having the third graders come and share new and exciting information. Do you know what transpiration means?

First Field Trip

Our very first field trip to the Museum of Natural Science. We watched an amazing film in 3D about the Grand Canyon. The film fit in perfectly with our water planner! We saw first hand how water effects the environment and how conservation of water can help. Thank you to all the volunteers for helping!

Water Experiment Day!

What an exciting day! The Super Stars traveled from third grade room to third grade room experimenting with water. Please ask them to share with you their science experiment book. I am hoping they will connect these experiments to our recent study of the effects of water on the environment and our discussion on how to conserve water. A huge THANK YOU to all the parents who helped me today... I could not have done it without you!

Class Party News

A bit delayed by the hurricane, we are set to have the party on October 13 at 5:30 pm on the pavilion outside the cafeteria.

In the past, some classes have had pot luck dinners and everyone really enjoyed them. It seems like we spend more time having real conversations than if it is just cookies before dinner.

We'll use the $50 for drinks and cookies and everyone brings a dish to share. In the past we had foods from different cultures, which was great!

Please let me know if you will be attending and how many in your family. Also, if you could give me a general idea of what you will bring (salad, side dish, main dish, etc).

Thanks,
(Katheryne's mom)

Hopes and Dreams

As we continue to grow as a community of learners, we shared our hopes and dreams for third grade. Each student completed an individual piece of the quilt expressing what they would like most to happen in third grade. Then all the pieces were put together to form one quilt to represent one community. Way to go, Super Stars

Picture Day

Picture day will be this Thursday October 2nd. Information will be in your Tuesday Folder.

Water Filtration System

Come and take a journey with your third grade students through the water filtration process. After reading Magic School Bus, The Super Stars worked together in cooperative groups on different stages of the water filtration process. The results are now hanging in the hallway. See if you can find your child and learn facts along the way.

No Power=No Homework Week

What an exciting week.! No power meant that noone had to do homework. Next week, if you still are without power (like me!) please let me know. Christopher came into the classroom today with a t-shirt slogan that says it all. If we need to conserve water then we should have less homework.

Makaila was The Super Stars first star student! She did a great job presenting her information and we learned so much. Please be advised that the hurricane changed our schedule a little bit. I will redo that as soon as possible. We ended the week with a new exciting development - the recently acquired document camera. Ask your student how it works!

Sharing Hurricane Ike Stories

Sharing Hurricane Ike Stories

Welcome Back Everyone! I was excited to see ALL my students back on Tuesday. Of course, the first thing we wanted to find out was who had power and who did not! Out of 22 students and me - only 6 were without power. I hope that number is much smaller today! Some of you may know that I still am without power. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the new projected date of Friday is accurate...

Your students will be bringing home a Field Trip permission form for October 8th. I know this is short notice, but please try to return these with the $9.00 fee as soon as possible. Thank you. I will place a sign up sheet outside our door for this Field Trip and additional Field trips.

We spent the week reviewing and adjusting back to the school schedule. There was no homework this week, but we will be back to normal next week.

The third graders really enjoyed the visit from the Water Lady... she was excellent and very inspiring. I hope you will try the experiments included in the Water Wise package. Please note that this activity is optional.

Tuesday we spent the morning talking about all the stories surrounding Hurricane Ike. The students worked in cooperative groups to share the information with each other. Next, they had to decide how to present the information to the rest of the class. The results were AWESOME! Every group had an interesting way to share their stories. It was a fun and educational way to get back into the groove of school.

Open House

A special Thank You to all my parents for coming an hour early for Open House. I appreciate it! If you any further questions regarding the information please send me an email. Here are some pictures of The Super Stars working independently during reading time. Students have the choice of reading to self, writing center, buddy reading, or working on a project. This week we are working on a mural of the water filteration process.

Please sign up for Mark Twain PTO at http://www.marktwain.pto.org/.

Remember, if our class has 100% participation The Super Stars will get a PIZZA PARTY!

Look who is in room D201!

You may have noticed a new title to this blog site, The Super Stars! This is the name the class has decided upon. The star has five points which represent our five powers which therefore makes it a super star.

Our First Week

What a wonderful first week at Mark Twain! Thank you parents for making me feel so welcomed. I am so excited to be in third grade! If you check out the bookshelf (scroll down), you will see some of the books we have been discussing in class. After reading, It's Mine and The Crayon Box That Talked we decided as a class to use our powers of friendship, risk-taking, patience, respect and cooperation to work together in room D201. You will notice that our powers also reflect the PYP attitudes and learning profile.

Our first planner is titled, Water World. We read Magic School Bus at the Water Works and learned all about the water filteration system. The students created a book to keep track of important information such as new vocabulary words and important facts about water. We will continue to add to this book throughout the coming weeks.

Classroom News: We eat lunch at 11:45 so snacks are welcome. Please bring something that the students can keep in thier desk. Open house is September 9th. The time for our classroom is 6:00-7:00PM.

Welcome to Third Grade!

I am very excited to be teaching third grade this year at Mark Twain. This past week I have been working on organizing the room, the closet and textbooks! I am looking forward to meeting my class!